Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
Vintro Pro
NL · FR · EN
No VAT to pay — and nothing to reclaim for that period.
Then no margin VAT is due for that period, and you get nothing back: a negative margin does not create a credit. In the Netherlands the shortfall may be carried to the next period, where it lowers your margin. After the year comes a year-end balance. If that is negative, it goes into the next year on request, and what you overpaid that year comes back to you (UB OB art. 4c(6)–(8)). In Belgium the last period of the year recalculates the whole year, and a negative year is not carried into the next year.
A negative period, in four countries
Netherlands
The shortfall carries forwardto the next period, where it lowers your margin. After the year comes a year-end balance; a negative balance goes into the next year on request (UB OB art. 4c(6)–(8)).Belgium
The last period recalculates the whole yearA negative year is not carried into the next year.France
The shortfall goes to the purchases of the next periodif you work per period; each year there is a stock adjustment (CGI 297 A II).UK
The shortfall carries forwardto the next period, under global accounting (SI 1995/1268 art. 13).For the negative period itself: no margin VAT, and nothing back.
This happens more often than you would think in a shop with expensive pieces: buy a lot in March and sell it only in June, and the first quarter is negative while the second is high.
Buy in March, sell in June
First quarter
NegativeYou bought a lot in March.Second quarter
HighYou sold that lot only in June.Not a bookkeeping error, but a consequence of your buying rhythm.
So it is not a bookkeeping error but a consequence of your buying rhythm. In the Netherlands, what does go wrong is a shortfall you forget to carry over: you then pay, in the next period, on a margin that was really lower.
In Belgium it is Royal Decree no. 53, article 3. Each period counts its own sales minus its own purchases. The last period of the year recalculates the whole year: all sale prices of the year, minus the purchase prices of the pieces sold that year, minus the margins already declared. A negative period is taken into account that way. If that final reckoning is still negative, the last paragraph says it gives no right to carry it into the next year. Read in Justel on 26 October 2026.
In France, if you work per period, a shortfall goes to the purchases of the next period, and each year there is a stock adjustment (CGI 297 A II). In the UK, under global accounting, it carries forward to the next period (SI 1995/1268 art. 13).
In Belgium the profit margin is looked at per return period: you add up all purchases and all sales in the period and only then take the difference. That is the globalisation method. In France the statutory default is per piece, but globalisation is allowed, with no prior election; in the UK the Margin Scheme is per piece and Global Accounting per period.
Add up what you paid for the pieces still standing. Not your asking prices: those are an expectation, not a value. You need that figure for your year-end accounts, and it is also the denominator of your stock turnover.
Vintro Pro keeps, per piece, what you paid, when, and where it came from. Your stock list and your margin VAT build themselves while you work.
30 days free, no card number.